Diagnostic medical imaging systems typically include a scan portion and a control portion having a display. For example, ultrasound imaging systems usually include ultrasound scanning devices, such as ultrasound probes having transducers that are connected to an ultrasound system to control the acquisition of ultrasound data by performing various ultrasound scans (e.g., imaging a volume or body). The ultrasound systems are controllable to operate in different modes of operation to perform the different scans. The signals received at the probe are then communicated and processed at a back end.
The transducers in medical ultrasound probes typically contain array(s) having a large number of transducer elements, which may include associated per-element electronic circuits. Additionally, the front end generally includes a number of data channels. Conventional medical ultrasound probes are designed to support signals with a certain bandwidth as acquired and communicated in the data channels. The sampling method(s), digital interfaces, and processing blocks in the processing chain are designed accordingly, and usually limit the maximal bandwidth. Thus, these systems may have limited bandwidth and only allow processing signals with bandwidths that are smaller than desirable. Moreover, as bandwidth requirements increase, in conventional systems, in order to meet these bandwidth increase requirements, the complexity and size of the data interfaces increase, which can also result in an increase in power requirements.
For example, in conventional systems, increasing system bandwidth is provided by increasing the analog to digital converter (ADC) sampling rate and digital interface transfer rate. However, increasing the sampling rate of the ADC (and also changing the output interface to a higher throughput interface) increases the cost and complexity of the system.